IPL sting: BCCI suspends 5 players for spot fixing

NEW DELHI: The Indian cricket board on Tuesday suspended five Indian Premier League players who were caught claiming to have fixed matches and receiving excess payments from their team owners in a sting operation carried out by a TV channel, throwing franchises, brand managers and corporate sponsors of India's most valued sporting event into a tizzy.

IPL commissioner Rajeev Shukla said that the governing council of the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) has recommended strong action against the players if they were to be found guilty in a probe by Ravi Sawani, former member of the anti-corruption and security unit of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Sawani was appointed head of BCCI's new anti-corruption unit only three days ago. He will send his report to the disciplinary committee of the IPL in 15 days, pending which all five players - Mohnish Mishra of Pune Warriors, TP Sudhindra and Abhinav Bali of Deccan Chargers, Amit Yadav and Shalabh Srivastava of Kings XI Punjab - will remain suspended, Shukla told reporters after a meeting of the council.

The governing council also decided to probe allegations of payments made to players by team owners over and above their contract fee. "We will take strict action against anyone found guilty," BCCI president N Srinivasan told ET. Srinivasan, managing director of India Cements, is also the owner of Chennai Super Kings, the defending champions in the league. Brand Value, a brand consultancy firm, valued the IPL brand at $3.67 billion in 2011.

The sting operation carried out by India TV, a Hindi news channel, aired secretly recorded conversations in which a few players appeared to admit to so-called spot fixing in the ongoing and previous editions of IPL, and also revealed that some team owners were allegedly paying their players over and above their contracted fee.

The unexpected turn of events, just as the fifth edition of IPL was nearing the crucial play-off stage, also forced worried team sponsors to reach out to the franchise owners. One of them, consumer electronics maker Videocon wrote to the Kings XI Punjab team, saying their brand image was getting tarnished because photographs of one of the team players named in the sting was trending on the Internet and social media, with the Videocon brand prominently displayed on his team shirt. Videocon chairman VN Dhoot said, "I am disturbed. We have written a strong letter to them this morning."

"If the investigations happen, and there is a big 'if' here, and if the allegations are proved true, it will be a huge hit on IPL. Many of the teams are owned by large respected corporates and match fixing could be a direct hit on their overall associations as well," said Shailendra Singh, joint managing director of Percept.

A top executive of broadcaster Sony TV said no advertiser had contacted him or the company on this issue, but he was keeping his fingers crossed.

In all this, former IPL commissioner and founder of the league Lalit Modi had a moment of one-upmanship. He tweeted: "Thousands of u have bought up issues on spot fixing. And asked my views.

All I want to say on this issue is - For sure when I was there - we had none. So there was no noise like today. Today too I see no reason for this issue. But that's me watching from outside. Inside what's on - u need to ask present management. As they are there and I am not."